(Review) Resione Tough 74 3D resin

[Evil Eye]

I recently upgraded my 3D printer setup to a Saturn 4 Ultra, along with a proper wash and cure station and a proper enclosure (highly recommend the latter, especially if you're short of space, as all you need is a window to poke the hose out of and fumes become a total non-issue) which meant I could finally get round to trying a new resin; Resione Tough 74.

 

I initially bought it for my other printer hobby, toy design, as according to what I had heard it is not only ridiculously strong but also does not suffer from friction grind/powdering like other resins, to the point you can make functional ball joints out of it. However, this review will be with regards to its performance for miniatures, as I suspect that is what most people here will be interested in.

 

INITIAL THOUGHTS

 

First impressions were good. It's not too viscous and pretty low odor, which is nice. Poured nicely out the bottle, no glopping or anything. Not a lot to say really, it's resin.

 

EASE OF PRINTING

 

I have found for my printer, at 30 micron layer height and exposure of 1.9 seconds works perfectly, though all printers are of course different so YMMV. It does seem to require relatively careful supports; nothing awful but it isn't idiot proof like my previous favourite, Siraya Navy Grey, which can be supported with hopes and dreams and still print perfectly. However overall this is not a hard resin to print.

 

POST PROCESSING

 

Removing supports can be a little tricky if only because even fresh off the printer the resin is INCREDIBLY strong. With the exception of very thin parts you're unlikely to break anything desupporting models, other than maybe your fingers! Cleaning is fairly straightforward, however curing is a bit tricky. It says it needs 15 minutes per side or 30 minutes total, which is a lot, but as my Mercury curing station has a turntable I am a little confused as to whether I should be leaving it in for 15 or 30; any advice is appreciated! I have been giving it the full 30, for reference.

 

It also takes about an hour of rest after curing to reach full strength but for miniatures this isn't a problem.

 

DETAIL:

 

The resin holds details very well indeed. I haven't had any problems with print quality. My understanding is most modern resin is pretty much the same in this regard and "high detail" resin is a bit of a scam, but anyway. The only thing I will say is it does have some dimensional fluctuations after printing so if designing a model for it, make sure to account for tolerance variations.

 

DURABILITY:

 

This is the strongest resin I have ever used. It's firm but not brittle, and can survive drops without damage. It genuinely feels stronger than some plastics, and is absolutely suitable for gaming. It can also be sanded and drilled into fairly easily. The only caveat I will say is that when it does fail, usually by being flexed too far or a failure point being created by a cut, the crack will happen instantly and unpredictably as with any resin, rather than "tearing". It's very hard to break, but still not indestructible and very hard to cut cleanly if you want to modify parts post-print.

 

And yes, ball joints do work with it, which is awesome.

 

PRICE 

 

I paid £43 for a standard 1KG bottle from Resione direct; it technically only cost £35 but tax bumped it up. However considering the marvelous performance and the fact this is an engineering resin, I feel the price is very reasonable. You're still getting great bang for your buck, and the quality of prints it produces is definitely worth it.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

 

This resin is my new go-to workhorse for printing. It does everything you would want from a resin and then some, has unparalleled durability, is simple to print and doesn't cost the earth. I highly recommend it, even if you have no interest in printing toys; it's just a damn good resin.

 

Finally here's a Chaos Rhino I printed with it (and heavily converted), just to give you an idea of what it looks like.